GUEST of 30 Oct 04 - 03:15 PM :

Yeah, what you said is absolutely right. I don't think I expressed anything different, or at least didn't mean to -- EXCEPT to add the observation that *some* relatively small number of native (Catholic) Irish were almost certainly included among the deported-prisoner population that were sent to Georgia as "indentured servants," and that any who made trip could not possibly have continued to practice Catholicism, but would have assimilated into the Protestant population and effectively become "Scotch-Irish," just like their neighbors.

Like most of those pioneers who settled the hill country -- the fertile lowlands were already allocated to the aristocratic planter class -- any such ex-Catholic types would have been more likely to become Baptists or joined similar "non-conformist" denominations than to sign up with the Church of England.

I just went back and re-read what I wrote. I still *think* I was clear enough in what I was trying to say, but apparently not.

I certainly did not mean to deny, or to argue against, the obvious and well-known fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans who came here from Ireland prior to the 1840s were Protestants, and that the single largest group among them were Ulsterites whose families had only recently relocated from the lowlands of Scotland to northeastern Ireland.

Change of subject:

What about the term "Southern Ireland" -- does anyone find this offensive or ignorant when applied to the Republic or Ireland, or is it generally accepted as OK? It obviously refers to the Republic in contrast to "Northern Ireland," but the Republic occupies the southern, eastern, central, western, and northwestern parts of the island, including the very northernmost section of all, in County Donegal. My first reaction when hearing/reading any reference to "Southern Ireland" is to think of the Waterford/Cork/Kerry area, not the whole country.